Christmas in June has become kind of my own personal start date for summer! It truly is one of my most favorite things that we do at the YES Foundation. On the last day of school, every student in two neighborhood elementary schools, Mount View Elementary and White Center Heights Elementary, goes home with a ball or some piece of sporting equipment and a wish and a prayer from their community that they would have a fun, active and safe summer! An encouragement that they can get a soccer game going with their friends or cousins, throw the football around with the other kids in their apartment complex, shoot some hoop at the park…maybe even try their luck at croquet or flying a kite!

This time we will also raffle off 8 bikes! If you want to do something for yourself, next school year, go buy 4 bikes, take them down to the local elementary school and have them raffled off at an assembly! Ask the principal if you can stay and watch! The impact that it will have on you is rivaled only by the impact it could have on one (or four) of the children in your neighborhood. We don’t think about it a lot, but here, in White Center, and in places like White Center, a $70 bike can literally change a kid’s life!

We’re thankful for all of our partners who help us make it happen: World Vision and Baden Sports! Thanks Reed! Thanks Bo!